Anatomy of a Crash

NHTSA research shows that the major causes of injury inside a vehicle during a collision are, in descending order:

1. The steering wheel
2. The instrument panel
3. The doors
4. The windshield
5. The front roof pillar
6. The glove box area
7. The roof edges
8. The roof itself.

It's not surprising then, that front-seat passengers are more likely to be injured than rear-seat passengers who are protected by the padding of the front seat backs.

NHTSA data also shows that 51% of deaths occur in head-on impacts, 27% in side impacts, and only 4% in rear impacts. Rollovers, however, are particularly lethal because they are more likely to eject unrestrained passengers from the vehicle than other types of collisions. And fatality rates are 25 times higher for ejected passengers than for those who remain in the vehicle.

The objectives of safety features are:

1. To keep the occupants inside the vehicle;
2. To keep them from banging around inside;
3. To absorb some of the forces of impact rather than transfer it to the occupants; or
4. To help prevent a collision from happening in the first place.